College Hockey Showcase, Saturday, November 25, 2000

College Hockey Showcase, Saturday, November 25, 2000, Mariucci Arena, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Today is the third of four days of competition in the College Hockey Showcase. This past Thursday Michigan defeated Wisconsin 3 to 2, while on Friday Michigan State defeated Minnesota by an identical 3 to 2 score. Tonight will see Michigan venture to Minnesota and take on the Golden Gophers while Michigan State will play the Badgers of Wisconsin on Sunday. Michigan needs to do what they did Thursday night, only better. They pretty much bottled Wisconsin up until the third period when they backed off a little and allowed Wisconsin to gain momentum and confidence. This made the final outcome of the game far closer than it needed to be. Michigan needs to play a full sixty minutes of hockey tonight and they should be all right. Michigan had a day off to travel and rest so they should be ready to play sixty minutes of frenzied hockey in Minnesota tonight. Tonight would be a great night for senior Josh Langfeld to return to his goal scoring ways as he returns home to Minnesota in his final year as a Wolverine. Also Minnesota has a pretty good power play, so Michigan has to keep their penalties to a minimum. The start of the game is about nine hours away; all we can do is wait until then to find out how our Wolverines will do in this contest.

Prior to the game starting news comes that Michigan’s injury list continues to grow as we find out that Bill Trainor will not play tonight because of cramps. Since they called it a charlie horse I assume the cramps were in one or both of his legs. Michigan just misses a chance to put the puck in an empty net as the Gopher netminder came out to play the puck – the shot by Cammalleri went wide. Michigan continues to put some pressure on the Gopher net as Hilbert gets off a shot. Minnesota gets a breakaway and a shot, but Blackburn comes up with the pad save. Both teams are moving up and down the ice at a pretty good clip in the early going of this game. As both teams move the puck up and down the ice Minnesota draws first blood as they flip the puck toward the net and Blackburn cannot stop it. Going by the comments made by the radio announcers this was another shot that Blackburn should have stopped (this has become all too common this year). Ortmeyer just missed on a shot after stealing the puck and crashing the Gopher goal. Michigan continues to come close as Matzka just misses, but like every Saturday in the month of November they are unable to get the puck into the net. A close call for Minnesota as they got a decent shot off at Blackburn, but this time Blackburn comes up with the stop. With about nine minutes left in the first period Minnesota picks up the first penalty of the game to put Michigan on the power play. If ever there was a time when Michigan could use a power play goal this is it. Michigan putting a lot of pressure on the Minnesota goal, but so far they have not been able to find twine. Minnesota kills off the penalty and they retain their one goal lead. We are down to the last six minutes of this first period and Minnesota clings to their one goal lead – this is a fast moving game. Now Michigan picks up their first penalty of the game with about four minutes to go in the period to give Minnesota their first power play chance of the period. Minnesota almost got a shot past Blackburn from the same place they scored from earlier. This time Blackburn is able to stop the shot, barely, and Michigan is now back to full strength. Another big shot by Minnesota and another stop by Blackburn to keep Michigan within one as time begins to run down in this period. An awful lot of action in the closing minutes of this period as Michigan looks to draw even and Minnesota looks to build some cushion. Wow, some real back and forth action as the first period comes to an end with Minnesota holding the 1 to nothing lead. This period comes to an end with both teams getting 9 shots on goal.

Right off the start of the second period Minnesota gets off a quick shot that Blackburn stops, then Michigan breaks back into the Minnesota zone and Cammalleri comes up with a big shot. Both teams continue to fly up and down the ice, letting shots fly with each foray into the opponent’s zone. Blackburn comes up with another big save as Minnesota gets loose right down in front of the goal. Minnesota really putting some pressure on the Michigan goal right now as Michigan is unable to get control of the puck. Another series of saves by Blackburn as Minnesota continues to buzz the Wolverine goal. Michigan gets called for a penalty with about five minutes gone in this period, Minnesota puts their powerful power play game back into action. Michigan is able to kill off this penalty and the Wolverines are again skating at full strength. Seconds after the Michigan penalty expired, Minnesota picks up a penalty to give Michigan a chance to tie the game while on the power play. Langfeld came awfully close to scoring Michigan’s first goal, but the Gopher netminder comes up with another great save. Michigan pushing the puck toward the net gets the puck into the goal off a deflection. Cammalleri got a shot off from the point; it hit the Minnesota goalies glove, then bounced off a Minnesota player, and finally bounced into the goal to tie the game. Assists on this goal go to Mink and Shouneyia. We have moved under nine minutes to play in this period as both teams continue to burn up and down the ice. Both teams battling back and forth on the ice when Cammalleri and Koch come into the Minnesota zone. Koch gets off a shot that is partially blocked, but it ends up behind the Gopher goal. Cammalleri comes up with the puck and gets a backhand wraparound shot that puts Michigan ahead by a goal. This goal was unassisted. Michigan is putting some pressure on the Minnesota goal right now as they continue to put shots toward the Gopher goal. These two teams continue to go back and forth, but this time Ortmeyer gets beat, hooks the player, and Michigan will have to kill off another Minnesota power play with just over five minutes to go in this period. Michigan clears the puck, but they get called for icing while on the penalty kill. The officials finally figure out they made a mistake and the face off comes to center ice. Michigan was trying to clear the puck out of their zone by sending the puck around the boards, however, the puck gets hung up on a stanchion and doesn’t clear. However, Cammalleri gets the puck and gets a pass up to a streaking Hilbert who walks in on the Minnesota goal and scores the third Wolverine goal of this period. Cammalleri and Burnes picked up assists on this short-handed goal by Hilbert; his first career short-handed goal. Minnesota just buzzing around the Michigan goal, but so far Blackburn and the Michigan defense turn the Gophers away. Michigan has killed off the penalty and both teams are skating at full strength. Michigan, perhaps smelling a little blood, is really attacking right now – looking for any opening. With less than one minute to go in the period matching penalties were called to keep the teams at even strength. The second period comes to an end with Michigan leading the Gophers by a score of 3 to 1. Minnesota ends the second period with the edge in shots on goal with a 25 to 20 count.

Michigan starts the third period with a two-goal lead – let’s hope they don’t get complacent and keep the pressure on the Gophers. Both teams skate four on four while we wait for those late second period penalties to come to an end, but we are underway in the third and decisive period. Blackburn comes up with another big save as Michigan turns it away right at their blue line. Again Michigan turns the puck over in their zone and again Blackburn comes up the save. Michigan needs to take care of the puck, they cannot continue to give Minnesota this many freebies or they will make us pay. The first five minutes of this period are gone. Michigan has had some shots, but they seem to be playing a little more conservatively in this period (a little bit, not a lot). Perhaps the best shot of the period goes to Minnesota, but Blackburn comes up with another great save to turn the scoring chance away. Michigan comes oh so close to scoring a goal, but just didn’t get quite enough on the puck and it gets turned away. Up and down, back and forth, these two teams continue to fly up and down the ice as we move under the ten-minute mark of this final period. There have been no goals and no penalties through the first ten minutes of period three. We move into the final five minutes of this game as both teams continue to move that puck up and down the ice. What a fast paced great flowing, hockey game. This is the kind of hockey I love to watch (or in this case listen to). It’s so much better than that slow, clutch and grab, trap style of hockey played by that other team from Michigan. With 3:26 left in the game Michigan gets called for a penalty giving Minnesota their fourth power play chance of the game. This could be a crucial call; the penalty kill needs to be sharp here late in the game. Minnesota got a shot off, but it hit a goal post, bounced behind Blackburn, and then away from the goal to maintain Michigan’s two goal lead. A giant save by Blackburn there as Minnesota gets off another good shot in the waning seconds of this Minnesota power play. With 1:49 to go in the game and the face off in the Michigan zone Minnesota takes a one-minute time out. Minnesota will pull their goalie to give the Gophers a two-man advantage, looking to draw within one. Michigan just missed getting the puck into the empty net as they clear the puck out of the zone. The Michigan penalty is now over and we move under one minute to go in this period. With 43 seconds to go in this game, Michigan ices the puck and the face off comes back into the Michigan zone. With time running out in this period the Wolverines get the puck out of their zone and up to Hilbert who gets the puck into the empty net to give Michigan the cushion they need to secure this win. The lone assist on this final goal goes to Jillson. The game comes to an end with Michigan winning by a score of 4 to 1. Minnesota did end the game with the edge in shots on goal with a 34 to 26 count.

What a great game for the Wolverines tonight as they play a real solid game of hockey for a full sixty minutes. Blackburn got off to a shaky start as he let that little floater between his leg and the post; however, once that goal was given up he was solid as a rock between the posts. Cammalleri has his second great game of the weekend to lead the Wolverines, but there were many Wolverines who played great games tonight. You have to consider Cammalleri for MVP honors in this year’s showcase as well as several other Wolverines for the all showcase team. Hilbert, Cammalleri, Shouneyia, Mink, Kosick, Langfeld, Jillson, Vancik, the names are many when you consider the Wolverines who stood tall and played well this weekend. Michigan pulled together to overcome the loss of two defensemen in the last week, just as they did last year when the injury bug hit early in the season. Michigan has their best weekend of hockey since the first weekend of November and gets two wins on a weekend for the first time since October. Michigan ends a rough month of November with two solid wins, against two solid teams. Next weekend they play two critical CCHA games against Northern Michigan, in Marquette. Michigan really needs these wins to insure that they don’t fall any farther behind in the CCHA race. Until next week, C-ya!